Rather than spending more than $100,000 on park renovations this year, officials will cut back and use a portion of money as a match for a grant application.

South Abington Twp. Manager David O'Neill said Wednesday officials will likely spend $50,000 to $60,000 on improvements to South Abington Park this summer while it's closed for construction of a gravity sewer line.

The funding is a far cry from the more than $500,000 an engineer originally said it would take to complete the "master plan."

But if officials can secure a grant through the state's Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, they would have significantly more funding for park improvements next year.

The deadline to submit a grant application is April 10, he said.

"We are going to do a lot of the construction activity this year," Mr. O'Neill said. "Then we will apply for a grant and hope we can stretch next year's money a little further."

Mr. O'Neill said the park will still see a major improvement at the children's playground, as workers will expand the current area, and install new sidewalks and walk areas - both of which will comply with Americans With Disability Act requirements.

Officials will also resod the baseball and soccer fields, and - once construction workers leave in August - "reestablish" the basketball court, he said.

The rest of the master plan, which includes additional parking spaces and new pavilions, will be phased in over several years.

"We want to get the most for our money," Supervisor Giles Stanton said. "We have to spend what we know we can spend, not what we hope we can spend."

The park will be closed for two months starting in June, as contractors begin work on an estimated $2 million project to decommission the township's two pump stations and replace them with a gravity line.

The gravity line is expected to start behind South Abington Elementary School and continue through the park to the intersection of Edella and Venard roads.

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